The present invention relates to a method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material (hereinafter, also referred to as photographic material), a processing apparatus of the photographic material and a processing system of the photographic material; in particular, to a processing method of a silver halide light sensitive photographic material, thereby leading to superior reproducibility in high contrast images and improvement in staining in processing.
In the field of photographic arts, methods of processing surface latent image type silver halide photographic materials containing hydrazine derivatives with a stable hydroquinone-metol developer (so-called MQ developer) or hydroquinone-phenidone developer (PQ developer) have been proposed and put into practical use as a system for forming ultra-high contrast images to achieve superior reproduction of continuous tone images through half-tone dots or reproduction of line images. In these development systems, however, dihydroxybenzene developing agents have been employed, and the use of hydroquinone has met with some doubt due to its potential toxicity to human skins and is also disadvantageous in regard to ecological and environmental consideration.
Recently, ascorbic acid and its derivatives have received attentions as a developing agent from the ecological and environmental points of view. WO93/11,456 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,816 disclose a method of processing a silver halide photographic material containing a hydrazine compound by the use of ascorbic acid as a developing agent. In the practical running process, however, it was proved to be insufficient in lowering of contrast and reproducibility of the original, and it is therefore desired to solve such problems. As a result of studies of the inventors of the present invention, it was found that specifically, in cases when ascorbic acid or its derivatives are used as a developing agent and the processing amount of photographic material is small, the problems concerning lowering contrast, reproducibility of original, sensitivity and silver sludge are marked.
In photographic processing, further, reduction of processing effluents is desired from the environmental consideration and a technique for reducing replenishment of developer and fixer solutions is desired. However, it was further proved that a processing system at a lower replenishing rate causes excessively highconcentration of the processing solution (such as developing or fixing solution) in the tank of automatic processors as the processing amount per unit time is reduced, resulting in adverse effects in processing performance during developing and fixing, and improvements thereof are therefore desired.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for processing a silver halide photographic material and a processing apparatus by the use thereof, thereby enabling ascorbic acid and its derivatives to use as a developing agent and achieving superior reproducibility of originals, without reduction in photographic contrast and sensitivity and causing silver sludge, even when processed at a low replenishing rate or the processing amount is decreased.
The object of the present invention mentioned above can be accomplished by the following constitution:
1. A method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising the steps of:
(a) developing an exposed photographic material with a developer solution,
(b) fixing the developed photographic material with a fixer solution, and
(c) washing with water or stabilizing with a stabilizer solution the fixed photographic material, wherein the photographic material comprises a support and a silver halide emulsion layer, and the developer solution comprises a compound represented by formula (2) as a developing agent, and
wherein in step (a), a first developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity lower than that of a developer mother solution used at the start of processing is replenished, a first amount to be replenished with the first developer replenishing solution is predetermined in terms of volume per prescribed unit time, so that when the replenished amount of the first developer replenishing solution exceeds the first amount within the prescribed unit time, a second developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity higher than that of the first developer replenishing solution is replenished thereafter: 
wherein R1 and R2 are each a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted amino group, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthio group, provided that R1 and R2 may combine together with each other to form a ring; k is 0 or 1; when k is 1, X is xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94CSxe2x80x94; and M1 and M2 are each a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal atom;
2. The processing method described in 1., wherein the second developer replenishing solution exhibits activity substantially equivalent to that of the developer mother solution used at the start of developing;
3. The processing method described in 1., wherein the silver halide photographic material comprises a compound represented by the following formula (1): 
wherein A is an aryl group or a heterocyclic group containing an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom; G is xe2x80x94(CO)nxe2x80x94, sulfonyl group, sulfoxy group, xe2x80x94P(xe2x95x90O)R22xe2x80x94, or iminomethylene group, in which n is an integer of 1 or 2 and R22 is an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, alkynyloxy, aryloxy or amino group; A1 and A2 are both hydrogen atoms, or either of them is a hydrogen atom and the other is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfonyl group or a substituted or unsubstituted acyl group; and R is a hydrogen atom or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, aryloxy, heterocyclic-oxy, amino or carbamoyl group or oxycarbonyl group;
4. The processing method described in 1., wherein in step (b), a first fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content less than that of a fixer mother solution used at the start of processing is replenished, a first amount to be replenished with the first fixer replenishing solution is predetermined in terms of volume per prescribed unit time, so that when the replenished amount of the first fixer replenishing solution exceeds the first amount-within the prescribed unit time, a second fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content more than the first fixer replenishing solution is replenished thereafter;
5. The processing method described in 1., wherein the second fixer replenishing solution has a fixing agent content substantially equivalent to that of the fixer mother solution used at the start of processing;
6. An apparatus for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising:
a developing section to develop an exposed photographic material with a developing solution,
a fixing section to fix the developed photographic material with a fixer solution, and
a washing or stabilizing section to wash with water or to stabilize with a stabilizer solution the fixed photographic material,
wherein the apparatus further comprises:
a developer replenishing section to replenish a first developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity lower than that of a developer mother solution used at the start of processing to the developing section,
a memory section to memorize a predetermined first amount to be replenished with the first developer replenishing solution in terms of volume per prescribed unit time or a predetermined amount of the photographic material to be processed per prescribed unit time, and
a detecting section to detect the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished per prescribed unit time or an amount of the photographic material processed per prescribed unit time;
and wherein when the detecting section detects that the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished exceeds the predetermined first amount memorized in the memory section within the prescribed unit time or when the amount of the photographic material processed exceeds the predetermined amount memorized in the memory section within the prescribed unit time, the developer replenishing section replenishes a second developer replenishing solution exhibiting higher activity than the first developer replenishing solution to the developing section;
7. A processing system of a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising:
a processing apparatus comprising
a developing section to develop an exposed photographic material with a developing solution,
a fixing section to fix the developed photographic material with a fixer solution, and
a washing or stabilizing section to wash with water or to stabilize with a stabilizer solution the fixed photographic material; and
a developing solution;
wherein the developer solution contains a compound represented by formula (2);
wherein the apparatus further comprises:
xe2x80x83a developer replenishing section to replenish a first developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity lower than that of a developer mother solution used at the start of processing to the developing section,
xe2x80x83a memory section to memorize a predetermined first amount to be replenished with the first developer replenishing solution in terms of volume per prescribed unit time or a predetermined amount of the photographic material to be processed per prescribed unit time, and
xe2x80x83a detecting section to detect the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished per prescribed unit time or an amount of the photographic material processed per prescribed unit time;
xe2x80x83and wherein when the detecting section detects that the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished exceeds the predetermined first amount memorized in the memory section within the prescribed unit time or when the amount of the photographic material processed exceeds the predetermined amount memorized in the memory section within the prescribed unit time, the developer replenishing section replenished a second developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity higher than the first developer replenishing solution to the developing section: 
xe2x80x83wherein R1 and R2 are each an alkyl group, an amino group, an alkoxy group, or an alkylthio group, provided that R1 and R2 may combine together with each other to form a ring; k is 0 or 1; when k is 1, X is xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94CSxe2x80x94; and M1 and M2 are each a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal atom;
8. A method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising on a support a silver halide emulsion layer, the method comprising continuously processing the photographic material by the use of an automatic processor, wherein at least one selected from the emulsion layer and other hydrophilic layer(s) contains a hydrazine compound represented by the following formula (1) and the developing solution containing a compound represented by the following formula (2) as a developing agent, and wherein a developer replenishing solution having activity lower than that of a developing solution used at the time of starting processing is replenished within a predetermined amount to be replenished per unit time, and when the replenished amount of the developer replenishing solution has exceeded the predetermined amount to be replenished per unit time, a developer replenishing solution having activity substantially equivalent to that of the developing solution used at the time of starting processing is replenished: 
wherein A is an aryl group or a heterocyclic group containing an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom; G is xe2x80x94(CO)nxe2x80x94, sulfonyl group, sulfoxy group, xe2x80x94P(xe2x95x90O)R22xe2x80x94, or iminomethylene group, and n is an integer of 1 or 2, in which R22 is a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, alkynyloxy, aryloxy or amino group; A1 and A2 are both hydrogen atoms, or either of them is a hydrogen atom and the other is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfonyl group or a substituted or unsubstituted acyl group; R is a hydrogen atom or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, aryloxy, heterocyclic-oxy, amino or carbamoyl group or oxycarbonyl group; 
wherein R1 and R2 are each a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted amino group, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthio group, provided that R1 and R2 may combine together with each other to form a ring; k is 0 or 1; when k is 1, X is xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94CSxe2x80x94; and M1 and M2 are each a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal atom; and
9. A method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising on a support a silver halide emulsion layer, the method comprising continuously processing the photographic material by the use of an automatic processor, wherein at least one selected from the emulsion layer and other hydrophilic layer(s) contains a hydrazine compound represented by the above-described formula (1), and wherein a fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content lower than that of a fixing solution used at the time of starting processing is replenished within a predetermined amount to be replenished per unit time, and when the replenished amount of the fixer replenishing solution has exceeded the predetermined amount to be replenished per unit time, a fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content substantially equivalent to that of the fixing solution used at the time of starting processing is replenished.